Delay outside our control, say Donegal
It said this was due to a delay in receiving results from an associate company, Monaghan Middlebrook Mushrooms, which are required to permit the company to collate its consolidated results. Monaghan has indicated that its results should be available next month and, consequently, Donegal expects to release its preliminary statement of annual results before the end of that month.
The board said it’s confident its results, when released, will be in line with market expectations.
Monaghan has informed the board of Donegal that the reason for the delay in finalising its 2003 results arises from issues associated with the financial statements of Carbury Mushrooms.
Donegal held a 52.5% stake in Carbury, which was merged with Monaghan during 2004. Following the merger, Donegal holds 23% of Monaghan. The issues at Carbury include the write-off of a bad debt and understatements of money owed to creditors.
These would have had a negative profit effect of about €2.6m in Carbury’s 2003 financial statements and would in turn have knocked just under €1.4m off Donegal’s profits.
Chairman, Lexie Tinney said the directors of Donegal sincerely regret the delay in issuing the 2004 results and the emergence of an adjustment to its previously reported 2003 results.
“These issues are symptomatic of the wider issues that we experienced with our mushroom business in recent years and we can assure shareholders that, following the merger with Monaghan, the mushroom business is on a sounder footing and issues like these are not going to recur,” he said.
